


To Inspire You

by confidenceTrickster



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 17:44:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4796501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confidenceTrickster/pseuds/confidenceTrickster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pearl's plan to defeat Yellow Diamond hinges on her ability to defeat the legendary Gem commander in a duel. As usual, she has nothing but the way she feels, her strategy, and a sword. How hard could it be?</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Inspire You

A bolt of lightning came down from the clear blue sky, striking the exact center of the Sky Arena, and Pearl was momentarily blinded by its flash. She threw up a hand in front of her eyes defensively, and as her vision cleared she could make out the imposing silhouette of Yellow Diamond stepping casually out of the crater, her back to the much smaller Gem. She was dressed in a dark, immaculate business suit, with angular shoulderpads that probably reshaped doorways when she walked through them.

Pearl found that despite all her rehearsal, she had to clear her throat to speak. "Yellow Di--"

At the sound Diamond slowly turned her head to look back over her left shoulder, and Pearl's voice died in her throat as that gaze swept over her, noticing her and discarding her as insignificant in the same moment.

Without a pause Yellow Diamond's head turned back the other way, going around to the right and carefully  scanning the entire Arena until she had turned all the way around to face Pearl fully.

Without deigning to look at her, Diamond summoned a holographic communication window and spoke brusquely into it. "It was a ruse: no sign of Quartz. Call off the strike. Just the Defective here. I'll be back shortly."

Pearl felt her teeth grinding together and stopped with an effort, taking a long, slow breath, in and out. Summoning all the power and grandeur she could muster, she proclaimed: "Yellow Diamond! By the honor of Rose Quartz _née_ Diamond, the power of the Diamondpact, and my own sacred honor, I challenge thee to single combat!"

Looking down at her, the imposing Gem raised an eyebrow. "Rose _Quartz_ is dead."

The name was an insult in her mouth, and Pearl felt the four simple words fall upon her like metal weights.

"Her... her Gem still shines, and as her standard-bearer and First Lieutenant, I am empowered to act as her Second in the event that she is... indisposed. I repeat my challenge!"

Making eye contact with her for the first time, Yellow Diamond smirked. "You've got spirit, kid. A bit of a traditionalist, eh? Well. Perhaps I should be dressed for the occasion." A wave of light swept over her, and her business suit was replaced by the traditional clothing of a Gem Warrior in the ancient style, a great dark cape billowing from her shoulders.

Pearl felt a cold dread creep over her as this casual display of power--not mere shapeshifting, but the prerogative of Diamonds: instant Regeneration. The sensation only increased as Yellow Diamond summoned her Weapon, an elegant longsword taller than Pearl herself. She didn't even have to remember the pictures in storybooks to recognize that blade: there was a statue of Yellow Diamond at one of the Arena's four corners holding its likeness.

Diamond held the sword in her right hand as she gave a ritual salute: pointing the blade at Pearl, raising it to her own lips, and then slashing it down and to the side in a brutal arc that made her cape flare out in the wind of its passing. Summoning her own sword, Pearl gave the same salute, to much less dramatic effect. Feigning her usual confidence, she intoned: "Let this be the perfect batt--"

" _Wait_." Diamond's single word cut Pearl off as surely as if she'd stepped on her throat. "You've already wasted enough of my time, so let's _at least_ make this interesting. I won't use my Yellow Lightning, and you won't do... whatever it is that Pearls do." Pearl nodded her agreement; the miniscule amount of sand she could move around wouldn't help her here, anyway.

Yellow Diamond settled into an _en garde_ stance, her knees bent, that terrible sword held one-handed out in front of her, with her free hand hanging limply behind her. Seeing that stance, the lazy perfection of it, and the sudden _hunger_ in those yellow eyes, Pearl felt herself recoil instinctively. This was not a duel between equals: it was a predator devouring its prey.

Without realizing it, she had shifted her sword into spearform, holding its length out to keep herself as far from that Gem--that _monster_ \--as possible. Her hands were gripping the spear so hard that they hurt. Her balance was all wrong. Her breath came fast and shallow. Her knees were locked.

_("All right," Rose said, "everything begins with your stance. Remember...")_

Rose Quartz always fought the same way she danced, in Waltz time: _one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three_ \--slow and stately at first and then faster and faster, drawing you into her, _daring_ you to keep up with her, faster and faster until you were breathless, your whole body pulsing with her rhythm... Sometimes she even twirled, dancing as she fought, leaving an apparent opening as her back was turned, just in time to catch the attack on her Shield as she spun, her Sword coming around...

For all her grace, Pearl had felt like a bumbling fool when she first learned the sword at Rose's feet. But unlike all the others, Rose had not kept her down: she'd given the young Gem her hand, helped her to rise. Her patience and compassion were a bottomless well, and Pearl had surpassed her limits to see Rose smile, broken them again just to hear her laugh. No Gem could keep pace with the General, it was said. Well--no Gem but _her!_ By Rose's side, she could do about anything...

If Pearl had been frozen before, now she _melted_ , falling back into her familiar _en garde_ stance as easily as water flows downhill. Yellow Diamond was lunging towards her as if in slow motion, the point of her blade aiming for Pearl's forehead to shatter her Gem on the first strike. Pearl spun to her left in a pirouette, passing her sword to her right hand and parrying the strike, then snapping out a riposte towards Diamond's arm that forced her to retract it hastily.

_("Keep your stance wide, keep your body lowered...")_

Pearl knew there was no way she could take the lead in this dance. To beat Yellow Diamond she would need to fight her like she had Rose: taking the following role and playing it to perfection, matching step for step until she could spot an opening. Of course if she missed a step _here_ , she would certainly die--and, more importantly, the best chance of stopping Yellow Diamond from getting to Steven would be lost.

Yellow Diamond fought like a machine, every blow shocking in its power and perfect in its control. Her movements were efficient, without flourish, and Pearl felt herself taking four or five steps to counter every one of her opponent, leaping and diving away as she advanced, relentless and implacable.

_("As you're moving forward, balance is the key.")_

Pearl knew herself to be outmatched, and the cold certainty of death settled over her like a shroud. She smiled. The feeling was... _nostalgic_. She'd spent most of the War fighting Gems that she was outmatched by, and she knew how to do it: all she had to do was _be perfect_. Pearl stopped watching Diamond's sword arm and focused on her center, watching for the miniscule movements that would foretell her next attack, trusting her peripheral vision to deal with the sword.

She advanced, parried, advanced again, trying to get inside Diamond's guard, where the length of her blade wouldn't help her. Fighting a bigger Gem made it easier to slide under their attacks, slashing at their legs to keep them off-balance. Yellow Diamond gave ground smoothly, sliding back from Pearl's every strike just in time, but she was starting to look frustrated. Her lip curling, she wound up for a decapitating swing, taking her sword in both hands as she slashed across with unstoppable power. Seeing her opening Pearl rolled forward under the blade, coming out of her somersault to strike at Diamond's hip--

But it wasn't there. The retreat, the big swing, had all been a feint: the instant her opponent rolled, Diamond had surged forward, her knee cannoning up towards Pearl's face--towards her Gem! With the attack inches from her eyes, Pearl only had time to twist her neck to the side before it struck, taking the blow on her temple, the power of it sending her flying.

Dazed and blinded by the pain as she was, Pearl rolled and scrambled the moment she hit the ground, desperately trying to avoid the follow-up attack she knew must be coming... But it never came. Yellow Diamond was still in the same spot, her longsword casually resting over her shoulder, as she regarded Pearl speculatively. Pearl couldn't help splitting into a proud smile--she was made of tougher stuff than most Gems assumed.

Of course, if she'd been human, that hit would have snapped her spine or scrambled her brains, but she didn't have to worry about things like that. Steven's voice came unbidden to her mind. _"You've gotta show her what you showed me: that you're strong, Pearl! Strong in the Real Way!"_

Feeling her grin widen, she called out to the taller Gem in a voice that finally felt like her own. "Is that the best you can do? You'll have to try harder than that to take _me_ down!"

_("Right foot, left foot--now go even faster!")_

Yellow Diamond had switched to a two-handed grip on her sword, holding it casually out to the side, her expression unreadable. Was this her true fighting style? Had she just been toying with her the whole time? Pearl shook off these questions and tried to clear her thoughts. Garnet had taught her about the state of "mindless mind", the reaction so quick that it proceeds the action, even passing along her Future Vision once or twice so Pearl could experience it herself. She had to move without thinking, calculate without calculating. _"Link your mind with the energy of all existing matter..."_

Pearl tried to fall into this state, Yellow Diamond did something that was less "attacking" and more "beginning an onslaught". With her two-handed style it was like fighting an avalanche, every swing flowing smoothly into the next into the next, an unstoppable momentum. She left openings, of course, but Pearl could sense that if she darted in to stab at one, the arc of Diamond's blade would sweep along and cut her in half.

This was the fighting style of a swordmaster who had honed her skills for uncountable millennia, attacks coming in left and right, high, low, low, high again, each with such power that Pearl could barely hold onto her blade if she parried them. Even floating in the void of her intense focus, she was barely able to stay _alive_ , let alone counterattack.

Pearl couldn't use her ranged energy attack without breaking the rules of the duel--and if she had one consolation at this moment, it was that the deadly sweeping strikes were not also _filling the entire Sky Arena with lightning_.

But... pirouetting to dodge a swing, she pulled another sword out of her Gem with her free hand, using the momentum of her twirl to launch it spinning at Diamond's face.

As easily as if she'd _told_ Pearl to throw the blade, Diamond swung her sword up to bat it aside, and carried the same motion through into an attack that would have taken Pearl's leg off if she hadn't leapt into the air to avoid it. With her sword's momentum carrying it out behind her, Yellow Diamond rushed forward, her shoulder crashing into Pearl's chest while she was still in midair.

Hurtling through the air, spinning uncontrollably, Pearl slammed into one of the pillars at the edge of the Arena hard enough that she practically wrapped around it, her sword flying from nerveless fingers and disappearing into the open sky. She fell from the pillar, hitting the ground on all fours. _Like a beast_ , she thought bitterly.

Her crushed pride and crushed body were nothing next to the feelings of failure and despair that rose up in her. By now the Temple would be surrounded, and the gambit she'd convinced everyone to take, that she could behead the serpent, was failing. She wasn't fast enough, skilled enough, _strong_ enough.

A low groan, almost a growl, escaped her lips. Yellow Diamond's voice was right above her. " _Weak_. Pathetic. You can't beat me."

_("And as you're moving backwards...")_

_"Amethyst, stop this! You can't beat me!"_

She had felt firsthand the horrific power Amethyst had possessed in the depths of her pain and isolation, the rage of Sugilite, and even, yes, that mad, uncontrolled part of herself when she was Alexandrite. The part that she told herself came from the other Gems, a claim that in the dark loneliness of her room she knew to be a lie.

Maybe, to beat a monster, she had to become a monster. To go _wild_. She felt tears streaming down her face, the frustrated rage and despair mixing into a black fire in her breast that was spreading, consuming her.

She gave Yellow Diamond the same response that Amethyst had given her: "I. DON'T. _CARE!_ " She surged upwards, weaponless, her fingers crooked like claws--she would _bite_ the Gem commander if she had to--and Yellow Diamond hit her with a brutal, contemptuous backhand, sending her skipping along the Arena floor again.

Pearl dragged her fingers along the stone to arrest her momentum, and rose _snarling_ , pulling spear after spear from her Gem and hurling them with reckless abandon; Yellow Diamond only had to dodge one of them.

Rushing forward, all sense of self-preservation cast aside, Pearl summoned her sword and lashed out, trying frantically to break through her opponent's guard. But Yellow Diamond was just as fast, just as precise: her sword was everywhere, slapping aside Pearl's lighter blade before it could reach her, and finally twisting upward, sending Pearl's sword flying into the air. Someone was yelling-- _roaring_ \--and Pearl realized it was her.

She reached up to her Gem with both hands and pulled out a sword in each, then went up _en pointe_ , spinning counterclockwise, her two swords slashing at her enemy again and again. A lesser Gem might have been overwhelmed by the fury and speed of this attack; Yellow Diamond had seen whirlwind attacks before.

She set her stance wide, holding her blade two-handed on her left side as she angled it slightly to deflect the incoming blows. Pearl could see a snapshot of Yellow Diamond's face for a second during each rotation: at first she looked shocked, then frustrated, then merely annoyed, then _bored_.

She wasn't _getting anything_ out of the fight anymore: she was about to end it. Her blade began to rise...

Suddenly, in the midst of her roiling emotions, Pearl felt a sense of clarity fall over her. One last inspiration sparked in her memory, one last voice telling her what to do. But this time it came from the last source she would have expected: herself.

 _"Steven, these are_ real _sword techniques, not those silly things from your movies! It's about waiting carefully for the perfect moment to..."_

This was it: the perfect moment! Pearl switched the blade in her left hand into its spearform and drove it forward and down into the stone to stop her wild momentum; it drew an arc across the Arena floor like the sweeping of a clock's hand, stopping behind her, so she was staring right at her foe.

Yellow Diamond's sword was too high, too far to the side. Her stance was solid, but not flexible enough to let her get out of the way. Her eyes widened.

_Thrust!_

Maybe it was the fencer's natural instinct to aim for the center of the target area, or maybe she had picked up some of Yellow Diamond's bloodlust during the fight, but in either case Pearl found the sword in her right hand was aiming for the Gem in the center of her opponent's chest as she lunged forward. At the last moment, she angled her wrist, pointing the tip of the blade slightly lower...

_("Keep your eyes on me!")_

It might have been an intentional act of cowardice, or just her Gem's autonomic response to danger, but Yellow Diamond's body dissolved into crackling lightning and drifted backwards, just a few feet, to dodge the strike.

With the last of her flagging strength, Pearl called out, "You won't get away! From! _Me!"_ Her sword shifted into spearform, reaching out towards the lightning...

When Yellow Diamond reformed, the spiral blade was already inside her abdomen.

She grabbed at it with both hands, eyes berserk, as she spat at the smaller Gem. "I... Can't...!"

_POOF!_

Pearl dropped her spears, springing forward, and fell as much as she leapt towards the Gem, arms outstretched. She had _seconds_ before Yellow Diamond regenerated, if not less.

With a _bwoop_ she encased the Gem in her pale bubble and instantly warped it to the Temple. If everything was going according to plan, Garnet, Amethyst, and Stevonnie would be waiting at the Crystal Heart, in hopes that a quadruple-layer bubble backed up by the most powerful artifact in the Temple would be able to contain her.

_Victory._

Her cheek pressed to the cool stone of the Sky Arena, boneless in the literal _and_ the figurative sense, Pearl allowed herself a tired smile. It had been a good plan.

 _Well_. It had worked.

They'd need to think up a different one for the next invasion, though.

 _No way_ was she doing this two more times!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! This fic came to me upon waking and I felt compelled to write it down. I'd be very grateful to hear your comments on the work, as it's my first in this fandom! 
> 
> The Yellow Diamond in this piece was inspired by this great fanart by Brid, including the screencap where she has the ridiculously long sword!
> 
> http://brideake.tumblr.com/post/128755474529/i-really-wanted-to-draw-a-yellow-diamond-this-is


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